Have you ever noticed how figure sets from the mainstream manufacturers tend to usually be more along the “standing around pointing” lines. There really doesn’t seem to be that much in the way of action oriented figures and I sometimes wonder if that is a deliberate attempt to distance military models from what they actually represent, war. Modelling in general does tend to stay away from this, even modellers themselves tending to prefer to depict vehicles on their own or if done in dioramas frequently in non action poses.
Oddly the exception to this seems to be urban scenarios, usually involving German and Russian opponents, but again this will more often be in the “just before the shooting starts” vein of scene. There is little offered kitwise in the way of injured troops, let alone figures of dead soldiers, and the few that are come as resin kits and are often criticised for being too morbid.
I do find it odd that we as a collective body pursue a hobby that centres around a major war, but prefer to avoid the unpleasantness of that war, choosing more often to portray the benign aspects. And by “we” I mean the modelling community that has as its primary area of interest Second World War modelling. So there is no “finger pointing”, no attempt here to rationalise anything, but rather just a pondering on why it is that we as modellers are drawn to World War Two modelling as a subject, but in doing so actively chose to steer clear of the unpleasantries of the same.
I sometimes wonder if this is because we prefer not to recognise that the hobby centres around a subject that involved death and destruction, or simply that the interest is more in the mechanics of the vehicles than the mechanations of war and so we just want to model something that portrays the vehicle without having to get into the philosophy of war. Rather like a gun collector collects for the interest in the weapon, not for the interest in how it has been used.
Sometimes I do find myself thinking about it though. If you’ve ever looked through something like the Panzerwreck books you do occasionally find yourself looking past the physical details, the technicality of the vehicle, the style of markings etc that most of us use these for, and occasionally stopping to think about what happened to the crew. It’s those little moments of clarity I think that remind us that we build representations of machines of war, displayed in scenes from a period in time that was not good to many peoples.
For me at least I need that reminder occasionally, as it allows me to put myself into the scene as a person, to think through the actions and reactions of the figures involved and the people that they represent. It may sound silly but I feel that when you can think of your scene as a moment in historical time, then you can give it more life as every part of it then has meaning, every figure has purpose, every detail has a reason. I think of it not so much as a single photo, but one frame from a film, with unseen frames that lead to it and will follow on from it as well.
Or perhaps it’s just late at night and I’m starting to try and turn my hobby into art. Time to start a new project obviously.
